


Before My Valour, All Demons flee.

by SaveThePorgs



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Alternate Universe - Desert Cultures, Chewbacca is a Camel, Dark vs. Light, Death and the Maiden, Demon!Kylo, Djinni, F/M, Falconry, Rey is not who she seems, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, The desert demon AU no one asked for with an extra helping of camels, There are many camels, Unkar is Unkar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 23:27:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15302388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaveThePorgs/pseuds/SaveThePorgs
Summary: Up until now, Rey has lived a pretty ordinary life. That is until her only living relative - Unkar Plutt, marries her off to a complete stranger. But before the vows are complete, a demon appears, changing the course of her future forever.Cursed to consume the souls of humans for eternity, Kylo Ren wanders the deserts of Jakku county, searching for his next victim. But when he meets Rey everything changes. Why is it that he cannot kill her? And how is it that when they touch she brings out the human - Ben Solo, that he used to be?- A desert demon AU.





	1. Bride

**Author's Note:**

> My dusty body  
> Is heaven's light;  
> Angels are jealous  
> To watch my flight.
> 
> Cherubim envy  
> My purity;  
> Before my valour  
> All demons flee.
> 
> \- Rumi

Rey had never felt beautiful before this eve. But neither had she ever felt so nauseous and afraid.

 

In her wedding finery, she was no longer Rey the orphan, but a vision of a girl, transcendent and ethereal in her splendor. Gone was the servant, dressed in muddy linens, hair sticking up, stiff like the nest of a buzzard. Instead she was smooth and clean, smelling of jasmine and rose water instead of the usual musk of camels.

 

She imagined what Unkar would say If he could see her now.

 

 _Good Riddance_ , probably.

 

Rey’s parents had died, when she was very young. Taken by a fever that had torn through the Eremite Valley, one she was one of only a handful of survivors of. With her parents gone, Rey had only one living blood relative left in Jakku county. A camel breeder known as Unkar Plutt - her second cousin twice removed. When presented with the toddler, Plutt had begrudgingly taken her in, subjecting her to a hard life of grit and domestic drudgery. Hours of shovelling camel shit in the baking sun, followed by a never-ending list of chores in the home.

 

Rey hated Plutt. But she recognized begrudgingly he was all she had left. Her only lifeline in the harsh desert, the only reason she had a roof over her head. A fact he constantly liked to remind her of. When she had first been deposited on his doorstep she had protested, again the chores, the sun, the huge humped beasts he prized above all else, but quickly she had learnt to comply. Though Plutt had never raised a hand to her he had learnt to control her in other ways.

 

If she misbehaved, she starved. Nevertheless her portions were small, enough to keep her going, but not enough to quell the demanding hunger that plagued her, a deep well in her stomach, savage and unabiding. It kept her on edge, that hunger, so desperate to save her energy that she did what she was told. At twelve she no longer had any fight in her.

 

She had expected this to be her life forever. But as she transformed from child to woman, things had begun to change. Despite her still flat chest, her waist had began to curve beneath her linens, the beginning of hips appearing, despite her bird bones. Men began to see her differently. She was only twelve, but men had begun to notice.

 

A few weeks before the annual desert rains, when the sky was hot and humid, a wealthy cloth trader called Tasu Leech had visited Plutt’s camel farm. He had been looking to invest in a camel for the racing season, but instead Rey had caught his eye. She did not know what he saw in her, all scrawny, huge eyes and cheekbones, but he had offered Unkar a sizeable dowry for her, a ridiculously generous amount of money, for him to take her as his wife. After pushing the price up by another hundred credits, dramatically bemoaning the loss of his housekeeper/ slave, a deal was made. Rey was to be married a fortnight before her thirteenth birthday.

 

And now here she was. About to be wed, clothed in finery, dressed up like a beautiful prize. Rey had known Tasu Leech was wealthy but had underestimated, just _how_ wealthy.

 

She had been transported from Niima to his home - Jah Village in a silk caravan, and then housed in a luxurious room, complete with a bathtub and feather bed. For a girl used to sleeping on hard stone floors it had all proved incredibly overwhelming. And then today, she had woken up and been bathed by maids, skin scrubbed with salt then coated in a turmeric paste designed to make it bright and fair, her birds nest hair tamed and smoothed with argan. Her sand whipped skin had never felt so clean.

 

 _Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad_. _Marriage_.

 

Yet as the two maids decorated her hands and feet with Mehndi, adorning them with intricate designs of flowers and leaves, Rey couldn’t not stop thinking of phantom hands defiling her, the rough callous hands of an older man, the thought of it making her thighs tense, Rey unconsciously squeezing them together, stomach churning.

 

_She was a woman, and women were not free in Jakku county._

 

Rey closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Maybe he would wait to take her maidenhood. At least until her first blood. She steeled herself, trying to be optimistic. Even if he took her tonight, at least she had escaped Plutt. She would have servants now, a bath, a soft bed. Tasu may defile her body but at least she would never have to toil again.

 

Still, she resented Plutt, her hate an inferno brewing deep inside her. He had sold her. Like she was his property. And the bride price, the Mahr, was meant to be hers to keep, by law. But Plutt was greedy and her soon to be husband seemed not to care as long as he gained _her_ , his prize.

 

As the sun grew low in the desert sky, illuminating the dunes with an orange glow, Rey was told it was time. Dressed in silk trousers and a beaded Kurta made of cotton so fine it felt like gossamer against her skin, she walked out before the priest, a veil hung over her face, coloured a symbolic blood red.

 

Rey swallowed and took Leech’s hand. Her vision obscured by the fabric in front of her eyes. But she felt the roughness of his palms, his age. Rey shivered. Maybe she would learn to love him…

 

And then suddenly a storm begun to brew. Sand stirring despite the lack of wind. Whipping up out of nowhere. One of the maids muttered and made a hand sign. A sign the superstitious used to ward off evil.

 

“There are _demons_ out tonight.” She whispered. “This marriage, it will be cursed.”

 

But Tasu Leech waved his hand, dismissing her. “Go on.” He instructed the priest.

 

The holy man began to speak again, about the differences between man and woman how a subservient wife made for a happy household. How a wife should work to fulfill all of her husband's whims. Rey kept her head down, staring at the grains of sand beneath her feet. All the while, the wind continued to pick up, growing ever stronger.

 

A clap of thunder, echoed in the sky.

 

It was growing dark too early, sun blocked by a sandstorm appearing on the horizon. It swept in so quickly that suddenly everything before Rey was a blur. She collapsed to the ground curling into a ball to avoid the sand that thrashed and whipped her skin.

 

And then it stopped.

 

And out of the sand came a figure. Made of waves of dust and undulating dark. It was a demon, a djinn. Rey had never believed in demons, despite what she had heard. Long ago they may have reigned but now, now since metal-smiths had perfected the art of iron-craft, they had all but disappeared. Modernity had chased them away and now, demons, angels, djinn and skinwalkers were all just legends, stories to be told on dark nights.

 

But here she _was_ , with one before her. Rey scrambled to her feet and ran.

 

All around her the night was pierced with screams and shrieks. Men begging for mercy as they were robbed of their souls. Reduced to hollow eyed corpses. Running back inside what was to be her new home, Rey found her chambers, hiding behind the enamel screen that curved around her bathtub. She closed her mouth, forcing herself to breathe through her nose. Compelling herself to be silent even though she could hear her pulse thundering, heart pounding in her chest.

 

“I can smell you, you know. There’s no point in hiding.”

 

The voice came from across the room and Rey tensed. It was dark, deep, and vaguely mocking. Rey suppressed a cry. She had grown up never truly aware of who she was or what she wanted. But now, with the world breaking apart around her, to a chorus of screams and chaos, instinct kicked in. Rey wanted to survive. She wanted to _live_.

 

As the footsteps drew closer, the soft, almost silent treads of a hunter, Rey sucked in a deep breath. Feeling the adrenaline rise within her. She grabbed the edge of the screen pulling it up, and ran. Ran across the rooms of tile and stone. Into a courtyard. There she stopped, the breath catching in her throat. Before her was Tasu Leech and the holy man, both lying stiff and unmoving. Unmistakably dead. Frost coated their lips and eyelashes, colouring their skin blue. The mark of a demon. That had stolen their life-force. Their soul.

 

And then before her, he materialised, the demon. A creature of smoke and shadow and whirling mist.

 

“You cannot hide little one, nor can you run.” The shadow said softly.

 

Rey swallowed, shrinking back into a corner. “You... you _killed_ my fiance!”

 

“Yes, that I did.” The shadow answered. “But he shouldn’t have been marrying you. You’re too young to be a bride. To have even flowered.”

 

Rey pressed her lips together and inclined her head, trying not to let the fear show in her voice. “Still, you didn't have to _kill_ him!…”

 

“I’m a demon little one. Killing to me is as much in my nature as breathing is in yours.”

 

Rey lip began to tremble, in anticipation of what was to come. “Are you going to kill me?” She whispered.

 

The demon, all shadow and mist, nodded.

 

Hot tears flooded Rey’s eyes. Angry tears. Rey did not believe in an afterlife. Demon's may well roam this earth, but that did not mean that beyond this life there was something. She did not want her life to end now, with nothing to remember apart from Plutt disgruntled face. The heat of the desert, barren and yellow. The hazy recollection of her parents face, ones she only ever saw in her dreams.

 

“Please…” She whispered. “I don't want to die “

 

The shadow sighed a deep, forlorn sound. Almost musical. Rey frowned in dismay, unable to understand how such a dark, violent creature could have such a beautiful voice. Melodic and smooth like silk.

 

“It gives me no joy, destroying something as beautiful as you.” The shadow said. “But a maidens soul will sustain me for a long time. Lives of others will be spared.”

 

Rey shook her head. She didn't care about others, she just wanted to live. “Please… I haven't lived yet. I want to live. Give me a year, or a few months at least. I’ll stay a maiden, I swear.”

 

"I’m sorry." The shadow said, reaching out for her with a tendril of aphotic black smoke.

 

Rey twitched jumping back, before the mist enveloped her skin.

 

“Is there, is there ...something? After this.” She stuttered. Hot tears spilling over and painting trails over her cheeks. “A heaven?”

 

The demon began to laugh, a hollow sound, filled with resignation and pain. “How would I know? I’m trapped here. You humans all want to live forever, but believe me, immortality is a curse.”

 

He reached out again, causing Rey to shiver and cry. A loud wail forming in her throat. She was scared. So scared. Of death, of him tearing out her soul.

 

“It won’t hurt.” He whispered. Voice soft. “I just have to touch you, and then the world will disappear.”

 

Rey nodded and closed her eyes. She could feel him, icy tendrils of smoke caressing her skin. The coldness grew, so icy that is that burned, causing her limbs to ache, penetrating deep down into her bones. It was spreading from the tips of herextremities, all the way up to her chest, blood freezing in her veins. But suddenly, as the darkness all but consumed her, it was as if her heart caught aflame and suddenly she was burning hot and bright, scorching the ice away, frozen skin suddenly hot and clammy.

 

Rey felt the cold, the ice, pulling away. The darkness incinerated by her fire. And then, suddenly, she could no longer sense an icy fog around her, but something solid gripping her arm instead.

 

Rey opened her eyes.

 

Instead of being met by the demon, a shapeless creature of smoke and shadow, instead she was met by a man. As his eyes met hers, dark and evocative and full of melancholy, he jumped back, staring at her. Mouth agape.

 

Rey looked down at where he has touched her, examining her forearm which now pulsed with a strange electricity. There, marking her skin were concentric marks following the pattern of his fingertips, burnt into her skin like a brand.

 

“Who are you?" He whispered. " _What_ are you? How _is_ it, that you are still alive...” 

 

Rey stared up at him, at his dark hair that fell in chaotic waves, his pale skin, large nose, full lips. He looked like nobody she had ever seen before. But still, resoundingly human. Had this demon perhaps been a man once?

 

“No one. I’m no one.” Rey replied. And then she ran.

 

_This time he did not follow her._

 

She ran, sprinting until she was sure he was gone, until she was completely alone. Only her, the desert and the stars. Everyone else was dead, she thought to herself. It was only her who had escaped.

 

But then out of the darkness, another figured appeared. Rey started, thinking it was the demon, coming out of the shadows to claim her, once again. But then the person shouted an exasperated ‘hey’ out into the night. Their voice sounding resoundingly female.

 

“Is anyone there?” The voice called.

 

“I am.” Rey shouted hoarsely.

 

The figure then began to run towards her, barreling into her, before pulling her into a tight embrace. Pulling back, Rey saw that the person was a girl with a wide nose and hair that flicked up at the sides. _One of her maids._

 

“Oh thank god.” The girl whispered. “Thank god, I’m not alone.”

 

“What is your name?” Rey whispered.

 

“Rose.” The girl answered. “And yours?”

 

“Rey.” Rey said softly. Feeling the single syllable roll over her lips.

 

“Well.” Rose said. “What do we do now?”

 

“I have to go back.” Rey whispered. “Back to Niima.” _Back to Plutt._

 

Rose squared her shoulders setting her mouth into a hard line.

 

“Well, I’m coming with you.” She replied.

 

Together they made their way through the night and the dark. Away from any demons. Back to the place of the living.

 

As they walked, the sky opened, droplets of water, pouring down upon her shoulders, her eyelashes, her skin. Rey tipped her head back feeling the drops falling, dripping down her face, coating her lips with cool, delicious moisture. She laughed softly. At the miracle of it, the fact she was alive. And all around her, it continued to pour.

 

_The rains had come._


	2. Counterpart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo meets Hux and discusses what happened with the mysterious girl.

Kylo departed in a panic, drifting through the desert, like silk on sand, leaving barely a breeze in his wake. He traveled fast, his non-corporeal form weightless and lithe. By the time the early morning mists had begun to roll-in colouring the sky, atmospheric shadows of rose and vermilion and cobalt blue, he was hundreds of leagues away in the safety of his cave.

 

He settled down, body melting into the darkness. He recalled the girl asking if heaven existed, –something greater beyond this earthly realm. He’d wanted to tell her that there was something, something bigger, but in reality he knew that there was no heaven or hell or underworld. Just places where there was shadow, and places where there was light. And in the darkness, demons and Jinn dwelled.

 

He thought back to her. _ The girl _ . Feeling a shiver pass through him. A child bride, with wide innocent eyes, but beneath a hint of defiance. He could taste it, a bitter tang on her skin as she told him  _ no _ . That she did not want to die.

 

It had been the scent of her that had attracted him in the first place, as he drifted in the evening twilight, alone in the desert. He had been hunting, hoping to find a small settlement, or a caravan of traders to feast on. Some unfortunate band of nomads that he could catch unaware and devour. But instead he had tasted her in the air. Jasmine and rose but beneath that an earthy scent, like the sand and the salt and the sun itself, making him stop and freeze, immediately turning, enraptured, needing to find the source of the intoxicating aroma. 

 

She had been miles away. He could not usually scent humans from such a distance, but something about her had drawn him in. A solitary moth in the dark irresistibly drawn to a single glowing light.

 

_ But like a mindless moth he had only got burnt. _

 

His body shook, a pang of hunger twisting inside him. He had not been sated. He needed pure souls to feel fulfilled, not the corrupt and petty souls of men, that type that wanted to marry young girls. Girls who were naive and innocent and not fully grown, chosen for their lithe forms and spirits, that like their bodies could be so easily broken.

 

The told himself that he'd be doing her a favour. The  _ girl _ , the girl with the intoxicating, scent. By killing her, tearing away her soul, he would spare her from the inevitable life she would face. Married too young to a man who would eventually tire of her once she had given him a son and a few inconsequential daughters. Who would move on to another younger bride as soon as her face lost in youthful glow, softening and loosening from childbirth and the passage of time. Then she would spend the remainder of her life sad and dour, a glorified housekeeper bound by outdated desert law. Him consuming her delicate soul was a mercy not pleasure, for the poor desert girl with firefly eyes.

 

But when he had touched her, she had burnt up against him, hot fire burning his ice and branding the long outlines of his fingertips onto her delicate golden skin. Somehow when he had touched her she had made him Ben Solo again.

 

_ Who was she? _

 

And how was it that she made his permafrost heart jolt like a simple mortals?

 

His thoughts were interrupted by a clattering. The soft sounds of wing beats cutting through the stagnant air of the cave, and then, a dull thump as the bird landed. A hoopoe, red and crested, it’s feathers dusty with sand, sticking out in disarray.

 

As soon as the bird landed however, it transformed into a skinny man, rakish and pale with bright red hair. The body of the man however shimmered a little at the edges, his shapeshifting lacking proper refinement. The man looked up at Kylo and scowled, upper lip curling up in distaste as he combed his fingers through his disheveled hair, shaking out the sand and dust and smoothing it back in place. He then dusted off the rest of his body, rubbing his hands along his tight restrictive khalat until he was back to looking like his usual impeccable self.

 

“Ren.” The man sniffed, staring up at him, face pinched as if there was a bad scent lingering in the air. “Always a pleasure to see you.”

 

“Hux.” Kylo replied flatly, ignoring the obvious sarcasm in his voice.

 

“I take it you were hunting tonight?” He sneered. “I got caught up in one of your storms.”

 

“You should pay more attention to the wind Hux.” Kylo replied. “Especially considering how much time you spend imitating birds.”

 

“Snoke wants information.” 

 

“Of what? The ever changing sands. Where the humans are shitting?”

 

Hux’s gaze soured, mouth twisting. “When it begins, the Supreme One’s war on man will be glorious! It will restore order to the desert, when he annihilates them with the cruelest stroke. We can reclaim what was once ours.”

 

“Of course.” Kylo muttered.

 

He had no real love for humans, despising their cruelty and their pettiness, their clever minds. The way they were always creating new and more ingenious ways to trap and kill jinn with new special alloys of metal, powders that ignited in explosive fire. But neither did he share Hux’s fervent evangelism. But nonetheless he was stuck, cursed by Snoke and bound to be the ancient Marid’s slave.

 

It had been his own fault. As a young boy he had heard that the oldest, most powerful jinn - the  _ Marid's, _ granted wishes. So he had went out to find one. Kylo had wanted power, and the Marid he had found out in the wastes had given him it. But there had been a  _ price _ . And by the time he had found out, it had been too late. The boy was gone and he was left as the demon Kylo Ren, destined to live out a never-ending half life, sustained by the souls of others.

 

“You’re shaking.” Hux said, sounding a little surprised. “Did you not feed?”

 

“Not enough.” Kylo said, pausing, then sitting silent for a long time. Though he had no need to breathe, he inhaled shakily, shifting in the dark. “Something happened.” He confessed, voice dark and low.

 

“What?” Hux laughed. “Did some worthless human start praying to their false gods? Stirring your conflicted soul. Is that why you look so hungry. You're weak Ren.”

 

“No.” Ren spat. 

 

He tensed and concentrated. With great difficulty he manifested his human form. Pale skin and long glossy hair, a long nose and tortured soulful eyes. A good impression of Ben, of who he used to be. Trembling he held out his palm to show Hux, the surface of it blistered red and weeping as if he had plunged the digits into a fire.

 

_ Of course fire couldn't hurt a demon. But the soft caress of his fingers on her skin had. _

 

“There was a girl, barely a child, in the village where I was hunting.” Kylo breathed. “She was getting married to a man at least three times her age. I smelt her, her soul, so pure and light, and I knew it would fill me up, sate me. So I grabbed her. Drawing her soul out of her body as she begged me to spare her life. They always beg though, so I ignored her pleas. But she fought me, fought back. She burnt me and drew out my human form. When I touched her I was _Ben Solo_ again. And where I gripped her, my fingers branded into her arm." Kylo paused, wide eyes full of confusion and pain. "I couldn't take it. Her soul. I don't know why. All I know is she wasn't simply a mortal but something more.”

 

Hux paused frowning.

 

“Could it be. That she was an angel?” He said, mild interest colouring his voice. Angels were rare, just like Marids, the most powerful Jinn. The only one Kylo had ever encountered was Snoke.

 

“No.” Kylo muttered. He did not know who the girl was, but she was not some ethereal spirit. “She wasn't shiny enough.” He explained to Hux. “And no wings.”

 

“And not a jinn?”

 

“No.” Kylo shook his head. “Her soul was too pure.”

 

“A half breed then.” Hux sneered ‘Just like you were once. How quaint.”

 

Kylo hissed at the mention of his parentage, an unwelcome image of his mortal father Han Solo, appearing in his mind.

 

“Half angel.” He whispered. “Half mortal.” Kylo had never heard of such a creature. _ Could it be?  _

 

“Was she pretty –this halfling girl?” Hux asked him.

 

Kylo jumped at the question, one that caused his breath to catch in his throat, choking loudly and unexpectedly at the question.  _ Yes she had been pretty. _ To Hux however he simply turned and frowned. “She was barely more than a child.”

 

Hux shrugged nonchalantly, as Kylo grimaced regarded the Hinn with distaste. 

 

“I simply thought you would be more interested in her Ren. She could be the one. Your counterpart in the Force.”

 

“Counterpart?”

 

“Yes the light to your darkness. The universe seeks out balance. She could be the one. To break your curse. You could finally be free.”

 

Kylo felt a flash of something hot within him, blooming. A sort of hunger, a longing. Perhaps Hux  _ was _ right. Perhaps he _ could  _ be Ben Solo again. No longer an empty demon, hungering for souls, never fulfilled. Maybe it all meant something. The girl, the mark. Kylo did not believe in destiny. But this felt like more than coincidence.

 

Was she to be the one? His prophesied bride, that would free him from Snoke's chains? He bowed his head, shaken.

 

“She can't be the one.” Kylo protested, unwilling to believe that there could be some hope. An end to all of this. “She's just a child. Some clueless halfling, unaware of who she truly is. Caught between two worlds. Part of neither one.”

 

Hux laughed. “She won't be a child forever Ren. And luckily you not having possession of your soul, means that you are immortal. Or have you forgotten. –What is a couple of years for you, but a drop in a vast ocean of time?”

 

Kylo stared at the floor, then up at Hux, his milky palor silhouetted by darkness.

 

“I’m a walking curse Hux. A demon. Nothing lies in my path but devastation and shadow and ruin. If I come to claim her, it will only cause her misery and pain.” He sighed, thinking about the young bride, ethereal and innocent. Pure. 

 

“I don't want to destroy it, her life.”

 

“You already have.” Hux said, voice mocking. “She bares the mark of a demon. As much as she tries to hide it, the news will spread. She will be regarded as a bad omen. Ostracized by society. Because of you she will never marry. Unless you claim her for yourself.”

 

Kylo’s brow furrowed, and he felt a jolt of pain cutting through him. Unwittingly he had damned the girl, to a fate she could not escape. There was nothing he could do now except let destiny run its course. He would wait till she was grown and then as the Force demanded they would once again meet. And when they did; –maybe, just maybe, this mysterious girl could save him. Give him the peace he so desperately desired.

 

“Why are you telling me this? About her being my  _ counterpart. _ ” Kylo asked, confused. “I was under the impression that you hated me _Hux_.”

 

“Of course I hate you Ren.” Hux sneered. “You’re weak. Snoke's rapid cur, not by choice but stupidity. Despite taking their souls, you love the mortals. Even if you deny it so fervently. Yet if this girl manages to break this curse, you’ll be free to die and order will be restored.”

 

“And with me out of the way, you will be Snoke’s right hand man.”

 

Hux sneered, wearing a knowing smile. “Perhaps you aren't as stupid as I first thought Ren.”

 

“Be careful what you wish for Hux.” Kylo said softly. “You know, I won't as much as touch her until she is of age. She begged me to let her grow up. And so she will.”

 

“It’s going to be a long five years.” Hux grumbled.

 

“So it is.” He replied.

 

“Till next time Ren.” Hux drawled before shifting seamlessly back into a bird. A red hoopoe sporting a ridiculous mohawk. Kylo listened to the wing beats as Hux took off, the soft rustles of wind through feathers, fading into the distance. Alone, he relaxed, any illusion of a body, a human form, fading into dust.

 

He was hungry, not sated. He would have to feed again soon. Not here, near her, but across Jakku county, where the devastation would only be met by silence.

 

But for now, he waited.

 

* * *

 

  
  


_ Time passes, slowly and sinuously like a river. Sunrises and sunsets. The constant cyclic nature of things. All creation bound together by the Force. _

 

_ Over the years he watches her. At first he resists, but something draws him back to her. A hungry ragged desire, one he cannot comprehend as he drifts invisible along the sands around Niima Outpost, driven half insane by the scent of her, earthy and light, surrounded by hundreds of other insatiable and selfish human souls. _

 

_ The first time he visits her, is at night. She sleeps on the floor on a bed of hay, hair loose, an old spare undershirt tucked behind her head. Beside her are a dozen camels. Like them she is treated like an animal, thin and helpless, no bed to call her own, only a stable. _

 

_ Her kurta is threadbare and stained and she is so, so very thin. He wonders what he has done. Now he understands her alarm when she he seen her future husband dead on the floor, stiff and soulless. She never wanted to be married off, but at least she would have been looked after, instead of inhabiting this purgatory. Little more than a malnourished slave. She stiffens as he stands over her, but continues to sleep, dreams filled with a strange darkness that she cannot decipher. He does not dare to touch her. Afraid of being burnt. _

 

_ He visits several times. Watches her shovel the excrement of camels sweat dripping down her brow, glistening on the hard muscles in her arms. He watches her make trips to the well, a heavy pail of water in each arm, watches her cook and clean and lead the camels to be watered. Watches as she buys bread from the handsome baker's son, her small smile as he slips her some sticky baklava unnoticed. Watches as she eats them later, tearing at them like an animal, licking the honey off her fingers. A feral creature, his mark branding her arm, dark and blatant in the oppressive morning sun. In public however she is careful to always wrap her forelimbs, eager to avoid the locals prying gazes. _

 

_ She grows. Her face becoming ever more beautiful, though the rest of her remains rakishly thin, and in pains him, the life he has subjected her to. The cruelty of her guardian and only relative, the hunger in her fiery eyes. But at some point something changes. She begins training with the camels, sat astride their humps in the dead of night racing, fearless, alive. For the first time in her life, she has found something that makes her happy. _

 

_ He wants to watch her every night, hungrily covering her beauty and joy but as the years pass and she flowers it becomes harder and harder for him to stay away. And he is sure one night that she sees him, one moment she is taking the bridle of one of the camels, whispered to the creature, and then she freezes, looking straight at him as he dissolves, smoke drifting through the desert air. After that he stops visiting. For two years only drifting and feeding, empty and numb all emotion locked away. But at every sunset he counts the days, till she is eighteen and he can free her, save her from her ugly life in such a desolate place. _

 

_ Soon he will claim her. Soon she will be his. _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I’ve taken a while to update this. Why? Two reasons.
> 
> One - an almost 9,000 word [one shot](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15426552) for a fic exchange. You should read it. It’s one of the better things I’ve written. Two. WORK. I work a lot. At 5.00 I’m up doing dawn chorus surveys listening for the brrrds. I’m an ornithologist. Or swimming. At lunch i’m doing spreadsheets. In the evening, dusk surveys or the gym.  
> I often even do some work on my day off. Yes, I am a masochist. Also some random South African guy has stolen my heart, so I literally have zero time alone.  
> It leaves little time for writing. I’m trying though. Next time expect bad-ass grown up Rey and camels. THERE WILL BE CAMELS. AND CAMEL RACING?
> 
> If you are interested in Marid's or Hinn the two Jinn mentioned, Snoke and Hux - [here](http://cryptidz.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Jinn_Types) is a site explaining Jinn types for reference. More comprehensive notes coming soon.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first AU, a blatant take on the death and the maiden trope. If you like it, please some this fic some love. I love reading comments! Kudos are great too.


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